Archives for April 2009

The other day we were digging in our garden, preparing the ground for a new vegetable patch. My 4 year old son spotted a frog – which he first thought was a chameleon, because it was so much like the sandy soil around it. He only noticed it because it moved as it fell out of the shovel full of soil. There were squeals of delight from my boys, as it jumped and croaked.

My first reaction was, UGH! MORE ICKY CREATURES.

But on closer inspection, I must admit, I found its colour and skin pattern to be quite amazing. Lovely earthy brown patches with soft leathery bumps.

I felt the beginings of design inspiration from this otherwise ugly creature. At the very least, it is beautiful because of the way it is so perfectly adapted to its surroundings. And I almost admitted that it was cute… until the boys wanted to pick it up.

For those of you who are not from either of these countries, it is the day we remember all the men and women who have given service in the armed forces – from way back, right up to now.

The day usually starts with a dawn service in every tiny town, suburb and city all over the country. There are also services all over the world wherever there are Australians in any number. And there are huge dawn services held on major battlefields of the First World War in Turkey and France.

At mid-morning, there is a very slow, quiet march of current service men and women, and then of all the veterans who are still alive. Often the children or grandchildren of old soldiers who have passed away march in their place, wearing their medals, and carrying a picture of them.

There are no big parades of weapons, or talk about victories, or anything grand. It is all very subdued. After that, people usually spend time with families or friends.

The whole day is extremely important to the Australian identity, I guess because Australia is only about as old as the First World War. Not to mention that Australia and New Zealand lost so many people in the wars.

I have to confess, although I am respectful of Anzac Day and think it is such a beautiful thing, I personally am not impacted as significantly and deeply as my fellow Australians. Perhaps this is also true for the wider Asian-Australian community, I’m not sure. Perhaps it’s because we are mostly more recent immigrants to this country, and don’t have the same personal family connections to the wars.

Anyhow, my husband had made the boys watch the march on TV. We tried to explain who all the marching men and women were, who the very old men were, and why everyone was wearing special uniforms. But the boys didn’t really get it. They came away thinking that every “old fashion soldier” was called an Anzac.

Later in the day, I took the boys to visit my parents. It turned out that a friend of my father had spent years in the Air Force, and served overseas in peacekeeping missions! He had just been marching, and spending time with other veterans.

He was dressed up in a nice suit, and had all his service medals pinned on his jacket. The boys were so impressed with the medals (Sean thought they were money at first).

In the car on the way home, the boys asked lots of questions. Why is there war? What is it for? Which side is God in the war? Why do they use guns? Why do countries fight? Why did good people want to fight in the war?

It was pretty difficult trying to answer their questions and explain everything, and also why it is so important to remember those who fought in the wars.

My heart was in my throat, and for me, the wars suddenly became more real. What would it be like to be a mother, watching her sons go off to war, as so many did. And I prayed that my sons would never have to experience the tragedies of war.

It’s 4am. I’m sitting in the nursery, rocking back and forth in my rocking chair. Every molecule in my body is glowing with happiness.

Liam is asleep on my chest, purring like a happy kitten after a good feed. I’m gently patting his back hoping he’ll burp out any air he might have swallowed during the feed.

Burping is important – I’ve learnt over the years. Burping can’t be rushed. If I put the baby down too early, he’ll grizzle and grumble, and will probably throw up his entire feed. There will be curdled milk all over the blankets, carpets, floor, chair, and of course me. Not something I want at 4am in the morning.

So I rock back and forth, and pat. The top of his head is nuzzled into my neck. I can feel his velvety, fuzzy hair tickle my chin. His skin is soft and squishy.

So, with baby number three here, my time is divided so many ways. All is well with baby Liam, but I am feeling, to be a honest, not quite as energetic as I had expected almost three weeks after he arrived.

Yesterday was Callum’s 6th birthday party! We have been planning his party for weeks. Since he is currently Star Wars obsessed, of course he wanted a Star Wars cake. He was imagining that it was going to be either a realistic 3D sculpture of Yoda, or a light sabre that had flashing lights.

But with a new baby, Easter and everything… we got to the evening before Callum’s party, and I still hadn’t even started his cake!

I asked my husband to bake the cake – just an ordinary packet buttercake, but we didn’t even have any eggs! So I sent Callum next door to beg for some from the neighbours.

By the time the cake was baked, the boys were in bed. But Liam was up again, and needing a lot of attention.

I reluctantly accepted that Callum’s 6th birthday cake was not going to be my finest ever work. My husband made up the packet icing, and my contribution was that I smeared the icing on the cake one handed while I was feeding Liam in front of the TV. We didn’t even have time to make some coloured icing to write Callum’s name.

I stole some of his Lego Star Wars characters from the toy box, stuck them on top of the cake, and made up the number six from some other Lego.

How poor is that!

Callum seemed untroubled, and had lots of fun playing host at his party, but I still felt guilty.

Out and about early one evening with my husband, we happened to park the car at exactly the right moment to see a huge, orange THING appear on the horizon. I was pretty shocked, but then realised it was the moon, and that its colour was due to the very strange cloud cover, and the angle of the sun.

We watched it rise, and of course I couldn’t help but start snapping pics. I am always amazed by how fast the moon and sun rise and set when you really watch them – and their strange colours make the whole experience even more exciting. But then something else happened. The moon started to disappear again.

It was rising behind some clouds, but as the sun had just set, the clouds and the sky were all one blue-grey colour, so the clouds were invisible.

I was just so delighted by the accidental beauty of the movement of the heavens and the atmosphere.

And later on, after it was completely dark, the moon re-appeared much higher up in the sky, bursting through a break in the clouds, and created a completely different visual effect.

I love seeing new things for the first time! I’m so glad I didn’t stay in and watch TV.

This is the most famous spider in Western Australia. It’s called a Redback, for obvious reasons.

It is tiny, and its speciality is hiding in the dark nooks and crannies that are in bikes, shoes, shoe laces, hats, under tables and chairs, and the holes in things where you put your fingers in to grab hold and lift.

And so, every parent is terrified of them, because they hide in the places kids play and because they are venomous.

I was recently told that they are not nearly as dangerous as their reputation…but they just look so evil!